California dairy families are proud of the sustainability accomplishments they achieved in 2011. According to the California dairy farming sustainability coalition Dairy Cares, the state’s dairy industry continued its commitment last year to protect and improve the environment. Central Valley dairy farmers launched the nation’s largest dairy groundwater monitoring program, a non-profit, collaborative scientific effort to assure that dairy farming … Read More
Judges Panel For U.S. Dairy Sustainability Awards
At World Dairy Expo we got an update on the U.S. Dairy Sustainability Awards program from Dairy Management, Inc. The U.S. Dairy Sustainability Awards program continues to gain support, as the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy® today announced that the newly launched awards program will be judged by a panel of experts from academic institutions, USDA, EPA, World Wildlife Fund, … Read More
Lakeland Dairy Adds Solar Energy to Operations
Adding a solar power system can give dairy operations a double-benefit. Solar can reduce you utility bills while at the same time helping your business become more sustainable. One dairy farm in Hanford, California has added a 891 kilowatt solar energy system designed and constructed by SPG Solar. It is comprised of 3,240 Suntech solar modules and two Solaron inverters. … Read More
Novus Introduces C.O.W.S. Program
Today in Reno, Novus International introduced an innovative program to help dairy producers enhance the comfort and well-being of their herds so they can better maximize productivity and enrich dairy industry sustainability. The Novus C.O.W.S. program launched with a new website – www.novuscows.com. C.O.W.S. stands for Comfort, Oxidative Balance, Well-Being and Sustainability. Each of these four key pillars of the … Read More
Milking Parlor: Novus Builds on Sustainability
Dairy farmers are moving to more sustainable operations, and Novus International, sponsor of this program, has opened a research farm that tests its products and ways to be sustainable. In this edition of the Milking Parlor, we take a look at Green Acres, Novus’ research farm that uses several sustainable features, including collecting the wastewater and composting and a soon-to-be-operational … Read More
Dairy Farm Sustainability
I’m borrowing from the Alltech blog, Innovations, here. They produced a short video to answer a question very important to dairy farmers. How would you answer the question? What is the most important thing for a dairy farmer to consider with regard to economic sustainability? Sustainability means many things to many people. Geoff Frank is CEO of Improcrop, an Alltech … Read More
Looking At The Future For Dairy
A forward looking panel of experts spoke to the Alltech Global 500 today. Their topic, “Forecast 2025: A vision for the future.” Now that’s not an easy task! I spoke with one of the panelists, Mandi McLeod, Dunvegan Farms, Ltd, New Zealand. Mandi says the future is about doing what you do well and focusing on the resources you have, … Read More
Study Finds Dairy Only 2% of Total Emissions
The U.S. dairy industry announced today that it has completed a carbon footprint study that measured the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with a gallon of milk in the United States. The carbon footprint study, together with data from additional studies measuring GHG emissions, helps validate that total U.S. dairy GHG emissions are approximately 2 percent of total U.S. emissions. … Read More
Students See Sustainable Side of Novus
One of the important lessons the students learned during the 2nd annual “Science: A Foundation for Dynamic Careers” days at Novus International’s suburban St. Louis headquarters and rural Missouri research farm was that Novus is more than just an animal agriculture company. It’s a sustainability company. Experts say the world’s population will be 9 billion by 2050 … but maybe … Read More